WHILE theater owners, lawyers and general managers are still scrambling to get August Wilson‘s play “Gem of the Ocean” back on track for a Broadway run, the playwright himself says he won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.

In an interview with The Post this week, Wilson said he “sticks with the art” and leaves decisions about where, when and how his plays get on the boards to others.

“My focus is on the work, and I’m very proud of the work,” he said over the phone from the Edison Hotel. He said he was “very happy” with the pre-Broadway production “Gem” received at the Huntington Theater in Boston. Where it goes from there, he added, is not something he worries about.

He also said he was not angry with his longtime producer, Ben Mordecai, whose failure to raise the $2.3 million needed to bring “Gem” to New York derailed the production at the last minute last week.

“Ben’s a friend and a partner. I’m not disappointed in him at all,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s apparent lack of interest in the intense behind-the-scenes maneuvering to save “Gem” is certainly unusual on Broadway.

Most major playwrights take a keen interest in such things, especially since they stand to reap a good deal of money and publicity from a Broadway show.

Tony Kushner, for instance, does not hesitate to pick up the phone and line up investors himself, as he did last season for his Broadway musical “Caroline, or Change.”

But people who’ve worked with Wilson say he really is the kind of artist whose sole interest is the writing itself.

“There are a lot of playwrights who want to know who the press agent is, who the designer is, who the stage manager is,” said Paul Libin, the producing director of Jujamcyn Theaters, which is spearheading the effort to salvage “Gem.”

“August has never been involved in the producing of his plays. You usually have to chase him down to ask him about [production details]. To him, it’s all about the writing.”

Why then, if the playwright himself doesn’t seem to care whether “Gem” gets to Broadway, should Jujamcyn Theaters?

According to Libin: “August Wilson is one of the most important contemporary writers. This is a terrific play, and we are all about doing great plays.”

OK, but there is a financial incentive here as well: Jujamcyn owns the theater, the Walter Kerr, where “Gem” was supposed to open, and an empty theater is, for a theater owner, a black hole that sucks up money.

Put a show – any show – in a theater, and the theater owner has all sorts of ways to make money – rent, concessions and of course those so-called “restoration fees” added to ticket prices ($1 on every ticket sold at a Jujamcyn Theater, thank you very much).

Jujamcyn has also invested about $250,000 in “Gem of the Ocean,” with no hope of recovering that money unless the play gets on.

Acknowledging the need to keep the Walter Kerr from going dark, Libin said, “We want to fill the theater with art.”

Jujamcyn, sources say, is still short several hundred thousand for “Gem.”

A few investors who considered going in have passed due to concerns about liability for debts left by Mordecai.

But there is said to be a big fish on the line: Carole Shorenstein Hays, the San Francisco real estate heiress, who has backed such Broadway shows as “Topdog/Underdog,” “Take Me Out” and “Caroline, or Change.”

Hook her, and Jujamcyn can turn on the lights at the Walter Kerr.

Meanwhile, Wilson has gone back to his typewriter.

He’s working on a new play, “Radio Golf,” which is going to be produced in the spring at Yale.